Plum Creek Timber Earnings: Exceeds Estimates

Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. (NYSE:PCL) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. The revenue beat is a positive sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are up 3.36%.

Results: Net income increased 29.51% to $79 million (49 cents per diluted share) in the quarter versus a net gain of $61 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 12.38% to $354 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. reported adjusted net income of 49 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.29. It beat the average revenue estimate of $300.73 million.

Quoting Management:

“We were able to post a five percent growth in full-year net income, ending 2012 on a strong note,” said Rick Holley, President and CEO. “We exceeded our initial expectations for the fourth quarter, benefitting from continued strong demand for well-managed timberlands. In 2012 we grew adjusted EBITDA to $530 million, or an increase of 19 percent, exceeding our goal for the year.

“During the year, we continued to position ourselves to benefit from the emerging recovery in residential construction. We’ve worked closely with logging contractors over the past several years to ensure we are in preferred positions to serve the growing demand from our traditional customers as well as emerging bioenergy customers…